Turning to his other guests, Amos says, "All right you lot, meal's over, and if you stay to listen to Toad anymore I fear for yer ears," and walks to one of the large round doors on the opposite side of the chamber. He opens it, revealing another wide passage beyond. The butterfly walks serenely to the opening, bows before Amos, and then launches himself out into the passage. Nod the snail turns himself ponderously, and starts to undulate his way towards the door. The beetles pause before Amos, clicking their mandibles at him, before he shoos them out the door saying, "What? No, that's ridiculous. Why would ye want to change yer names to 'Paul' and 'Ringo'? What kind of stupid names are those? Get out of here!"
Zithers takes particular interest in the glasses lens, (we could use it to burn a message into a wooden board or something?), and chuckles when Amos mentions Toad's singing, along with a comment asking about "Lennon" or "George" for the beetle's names. After this, he turns to the rest of the party. "We could go straight out into the surface, but if everyone is capable enough, we could get rat and snake teeth or skeleton or pelts and then see if we can grow those along with us, and probably sell those for quite a bit, along with helping Erastus Whatshisface out by exterminating some pests while we're at it. Who knows, we might find something interesting back there."
The party decides to take Amos up on his offer, and take a long rest in the safety of his home. On the morrow, you awake to find Amos gone, but a nice buffet of minty water, coarse bread, cheese, and strawberries, all cut up into fist-sized chunks, is set out for you, with a note: "Toad and I went for an explore. Enjoyed yer visit. Please help yerselves,
And take the tin as a gift.
-Amos"
Looking about you notice a 1 foot cube thin metal box with a lid, which contains some of the healing salve Amos used on you earlier, you estimate about 12 applications or so (each use is the equivalent of one potion of healing). It weighs approximately 20lb.
Gathering your things, you march back to the front door, where you are flustered to discover you do not know how to open it. Noticing a knobon this side as well, Zithers once again raps on the inside of the door three times, causing the magical eye to open and peer at you. A little intimidated, the gnome squeaks, "Um... Open up!.... Please!". The eye focuses on the gnome, closes, and the door swings open. As the last one of you exits, the door closes behind you.
You are now in the large, 30 ft high tunnel you entered from. To the north, the tunnel narrows into a 7 foot passage, and that is the direction you came from. To the south the tunnel proceeds broad and high, and on a slightly upward grade. The party turns southward, and proceeds forward. After about 20 minutes, there is a side passage on the east, while the main tunnel continues south and up. Durnik, having been on the lookout for signs of his missing handaxe, investigates the opening, and finds a bit of rat bloodleading into the passage.
“Well, that was an amazing night’s rest! Let’s go get your axe back” says Cerlinde. She eats breakfast and casts mage armor on herself, and is ready to explore
Zithers eats up his breakfast, and pulls out his ink pen, flips the note over and writes in big letters so Amos can read the tiny lines: "THANK YOU FOR THE FOOD AND THE GIFT, WE WONT FORGET YOUR HOSPITALITY :) --Barrick Epsilon Zithers" He also leaves room for the other people to sign the "card" if they so wish. He hefts up the heavy tin, and enters the tunnel that Durnik discovers.
After the night's rest Durnik is reenergized and ready to go to look for his axe and also to find a way to get big again. When he finds the rat blood leading into the new tunnel he'll light a torch and forge forward keeping an eye out for the rats or anything else.
The smaller, side tunnel has less of the well-wrought appearance of Amos' work, and looks more like it has been scrabbled out of the earth by claws. As the party cautiously advances, those in front notice that the passageway begins to widen up ahead into what is probably a chamber. A less-than-pleasant smell wafting your way indicates it may contain a rats' nest. Wisely, you extinguish all light sources, and then you should discuss what you want to do next. (Who is going in? In what order? Will you attempt stealth? What light sources, if any, will be used? etc.)
Mohdrak took mental notes of what Amos had to say. There was a passage to the garden of the gnome inventor whose fault it was they were stuck like this. It sounded tempting but it would take them outside, which was not something the tiny minotaur was all too keen on. The remark about some spider queen also did not sit well. He took a moment to see if he was carrying anything shiny but the remnants of the spider ichor made sure that he presented as anything but shiny or sparkling.
After a refreshing rest and making sure Nixie was comfortable in her bundle of cloth in his backpack, did Mohdrak join the others for the next day of adventuring. He took it upon himself to haul around the rather large piece of glass. If nothing else, handing it back to its proper owner was the right thing to do. He slid it between his pack and his back and secured it with rope, leaving his arms free. One of them at least: his left held the familiar weight of his shield.
He was about to light a torch when the smell reached his nostrils. He did not strike the flint but looked hesitantly at the others whose presence he could guess from their breathing and soft creaking of armour. 'I'm all for the stealthy approach but I can't see worth a damn in the dark.'He whispered to them.
"I'm stealthy-ish, but most of my attacks worth anything involve fire, and lots of it. I would say we send our quietest member to see if they cant snag the axe and/or any other valuables they see, with the rest of us ready to back them up if needed, and if that goes successfully we can light up the nest afterwards" Zithers whispers
This post has potentially manipulated dice roll results.
Amelia Velasir, the half-elven rogue, attempts to sneak around the corner and enter the chamber, relying on her darkvision rather than any external light source.
Amelia stealth 17
She sees an irregular cavern roughly 80 feet in diameter with a ceiling of approximately 15 feet. There are piles of grass, bones and droppings scattered about, but the most striking, (and disgusting) feature of the room is the swarm of rats in the center. They are scrambling around what appears to be another rat, which is laying on its back, still, with a distinctive handaxe still stuck in one haunch. These creatures appear to have no qualms about cannibalism, as they devour the carcass of their former nest-mate. There are approximately six of these creatures, roughly four feet high and twice as long. Another, larger rat (six feet high, twelve long) is off to one side, observing, as it has torn off its own large chunk of flesh to feast upon. As the cavern is completely dark, the rats are continually sniffing the air to get their bearings and know where everything is.
Rats' perception (smell) 15
So far, the creatures do not appear to have noticed the rogue's presence. What do each of you wish to do now?
Cerlinde points out the axe- and wordlessly looks at the group, as if to say “what should we do? Fight?”
if anyone nods yes, she casts sleep at the rat swarm, hoping to knock at least a couple of them out before they attack..
19 HP affected
As quietly as he can, Zithers whispers "Yes to a fight, but first, I could attempt to use Mage Hand to get the axe out of there and place it in a corner so as to not damage it with my more... flammable spells. Afterwards we can take the salvageable parts from the rats and pick up an unsinged axe. I would bring the axe back to us directly but i fear they would follow it and be alerted to us before we got the jump on them."
As long as no one has any intense objections, Zithers goes forward with this plan hopefully as Cerlinde casts sleep.
'Divide and conquer is a sound strategy.' Mohdrak chimed in with a whisper. He did prepare for a fight however and took his shield and morningstar in hand. The initial sleep spell was a good idea but there was no telling if it would affect all of the rats.
Cerlinde tries her sleep spell, once everyone is ready. As discretion is the better part of valor, and cowardice is the better part of discretion, she valiantly stands behind the others while casting it…
Amelia the rogue quietly exits the rats' den, and whispers to the others what she has seen. Cerlinde [peeks around the corner to assess the situation and] suggests a strategy, with a tweak from the gnomish warlock. The party quietly approaches the chamber's entrance, lights extinguished.
The sleep spell causes three of the lesser rats to slump over and start snoring. Meanwhile, the ghostly mage hand appears near the dead rat's carcass and begins tugging at the handaxe. The remaining "normal-sized" rats pay it little attention, but the larger rodent stops eating and stares intently at this barely-visible apparition. After a few tugs, the spectral hand manages to free the handaxe and floats toward one wall with the weapon. The "boss" rat growls sharply, and the others instantly look up, sniffing and straining their ears to detect danger. One of them turns in your direction, sampling the air, and freezes, tail twitching, staring right at you.
Feeling that surprise has been lost, and really missing his axe "Frigga", Durnik charges forward, swinging his remaining blade, "Brunhilde", attacking the sentinel beast. Jack is not far behind, with a hastily-lit torch in one hand, and his longsword in the other. Your party is now officially in combat.
(Rats 1-3 and "Boss" are awake, 4-6 asleep for now)
Turning to his other guests, Amos says, "All right you lot, meal's over, and if you stay to listen to Toad anymore I fear for yer ears," and walks to one of the large round doors on the opposite side of the chamber. He opens it, revealing another wide passage beyond. The butterfly walks serenely to the opening, bows before Amos, and then launches himself out into the passage. Nod the snail turns himself ponderously, and starts to undulate his way towards the door. The beetles pause before Amos, clicking their mandibles at him, before he shoos them out the door saying, "What? No, that's ridiculous. Why would ye want to change yer names to 'Paul' and 'Ringo'? What kind of stupid names are those? Get out of here!"
Zithers takes particular interest in the glasses lens, (we could use it to burn a message into a wooden board or something?), and chuckles when Amos mentions Toad's singing, along with a comment asking about "Lennon" or "George" for the beetle's names. After this, he turns to the rest of the party. "We could go straight out into the surface, but if everyone is capable enough, we could get rat and snake teeth or skeleton or pelts and then see if we can grow those along with us, and probably sell those for quite a bit, along with helping Erastus Whatshisface out by exterminating some pests while we're at it. Who knows, we might find something interesting back there."
“I’m open to exploring further. Maybe we will find something we can use to signal the villagers.” Cerlinde says.
Moving the story along...
The party decides to take Amos up on his offer, and take a long rest in the safety of his home. On the morrow, you awake to find Amos gone, but a nice buffet of minty water, coarse bread, cheese, and strawberries, all cut up into fist-sized chunks, is set out for you, with a note:
"Toad and I went for an explore.
Enjoyed yer visit. Please help yerselves,
And take the tin as a gift.
-Amos"
Looking about you notice a 1 foot cube thin metal box with a lid, which contains some of the healing salve Amos used on you earlier, you estimate about 12 applications or so (each use is the equivalent of one potion of healing). It weighs approximately 20lb.
Gathering your things, you march back to the front door, where you are flustered to discover you do not know how to open it. Noticing a knob on this side as well, Zithers once again raps on the inside of the door three times, causing the magical eye to open and peer at you. A little intimidated, the gnome squeaks, "Um... Open up!.... Please!". The eye focuses on the gnome, closes, and the door swings open. As the last one of you exits, the door closes behind you.
You are now in the large, 30 ft high tunnel you entered from. To the north, the tunnel narrows into a 7 foot passage, and that is the direction you came from. To the south the tunnel proceeds broad and high, and on a slightly upward grade. The party turns southward, and proceeds forward. After about 20 minutes, there is a side passage on the east, while the main tunnel continues south and up. Durnik, having been on the lookout for signs of his missing handaxe, investigates the opening, and finds a bit of rat blood leading into the passage.
“Well, that was an amazing night’s rest! Let’s go get your axe back” says Cerlinde. She eats breakfast and casts mage armor on herself, and is ready to explore
Zithers eats up his breakfast, and pulls out his ink pen, flips the note over and writes in big letters so Amos can read the tiny lines: "THANK YOU FOR THE FOOD AND THE GIFT, WE WONT FORGET YOUR HOSPITALITY :) --Barrick Epsilon Zithers" He also leaves room for the other people to sign the "card" if they so wish. He hefts up the heavy tin, and enters the tunnel that Durnik discovers.
After the night's rest Durnik is reenergized and ready to go to look for his axe and also to find a way to get big again. When he finds the rat blood leading into the new tunnel he'll light a torch and forge forward keeping an eye out for the rats or anything else.
Perception: 8
The smaller, side tunnel has less of the well-wrought appearance of Amos' work, and looks more like it has been scrabbled out of the earth by claws. As the party cautiously advances, those in front notice that the passageway begins to widen up ahead into what is probably a chamber. A less-than-pleasant smell wafting your way indicates it may contain a rats' nest. Wisely, you extinguish all light sources, and then you should discuss what you want to do next. (Who is going in? In what order? Will you attempt stealth? What light sources, if any, will be used? etc.)
Mohdrak took mental notes of what Amos had to say. There was a passage to the garden of the gnome inventor whose fault it was they were stuck like this. It sounded tempting but it would take them outside, which was not something the tiny minotaur was all too keen on. The remark about some spider queen also did not sit well. He took a moment to see if he was carrying anything shiny but the remnants of the spider ichor made sure that he presented as anything but shiny or sparkling.
After a refreshing rest and making sure Nixie was comfortable in her bundle of cloth in his backpack, did Mohdrak join the others for the next day of adventuring. He took it upon himself to haul around the rather large piece of glass. If nothing else, handing it back to its proper owner was the right thing to do. He slid it between his pack and his back and secured it with rope, leaving his arms free. One of them at least: his left held the familiar weight of his shield.
He was about to light a torch when the smell reached his nostrils. He did not strike the flint but looked hesitantly at the others whose presence he could guess from their breathing and soft creaking of armour. 'I'm all for the stealthy approach but I can't see worth a damn in the dark.' He whispered to them.
William Brackwater: Human Fighter - The Windward Isles
Tyrgram, the Butterfly Knight: Dwarf Warlock - Secret of Greenwold
Iòlinder Corrach: Half Elf War Cleric - Allansia Adventure
Valerius Sergius Publius: Dhampir Paladin - Vae Victus
"I'm stealthy-ish, but most of my attacks worth anything involve fire, and lots of it. I would say we send our quietest member to see if they cant snag the axe and/or any other valuables they see, with the rest of us ready to back them up if needed, and if that goes successfully we can light up the nest afterwards" Zithers whispers
“I’m not very sneaky, myself.” Cerlinde says..
"I'm sneaky," Amelia volunteers.
Should the group decide to go the sneaky route, Mohdrak will hang in the back as to not screw it up from the get go.
William Brackwater: Human Fighter - The Windward Isles
Tyrgram, the Butterfly Knight: Dwarf Warlock - Secret of Greenwold
Iòlinder Corrach: Half Elf War Cleric - Allansia Adventure
Valerius Sergius Publius: Dhampir Paladin - Vae Victus
Amelia Velasir, the half-elven rogue, attempts to sneak around the corner and enter the chamber, relying on her darkvision rather than any external light source.
Amelia stealth 17
She sees an irregular cavern roughly 80 feet in diameter with a ceiling of approximately 15 feet. There are piles of grass, bones and droppings scattered about, but the most striking, (and disgusting) feature of the room is the swarm of rats in the center. They are scrambling around what appears to be another rat, which is laying on its back, still, with a distinctive handaxe still stuck in one haunch. These creatures appear to have no qualms about cannibalism, as they devour the carcass of their former nest-mate. There are approximately six of these creatures, roughly four feet high and twice as long. Another, larger rat (six feet high, twelve long) is off to one side, observing, as it has torn off its own large chunk of flesh to feast upon. As the cavern is completely dark, the rats are continually sniffing the air to get their bearings and know where everything is.
Rats' perception (smell) 15
So far, the creatures do not appear to have noticed the rogue's presence.
What do each of you wish to do now?
Cerlinde points out the axe- and wordlessly looks at the group, as if to say “what should we do? Fight?”
if anyone nods yes, she casts sleep at the rat swarm, hoping to knock at least a couple of them out before they attack..
19 HP affected
As quietly as he can, Zithers whispers "Yes to a fight, but first, I could attempt to use Mage Hand to get the axe out of there and place it in a corner so as to not damage it with my more... flammable spells. Afterwards we can take the salvageable parts from the rats and pick up an unsinged axe. I would bring the axe back to us directly but i fear they would follow it and be alerted to us before we got the jump on them."
As long as no one has any intense objections, Zithers goes forward with this plan hopefully as Cerlinde casts sleep.
'Divide and conquer is a sound strategy.' Mohdrak chimed in with a whisper. He did prepare for a fight however and took his shield and morningstar in hand. The initial sleep spell was a good idea but there was no telling if it would affect all of the rats.
William Brackwater: Human Fighter - The Windward Isles
Tyrgram, the Butterfly Knight: Dwarf Warlock - Secret of Greenwold
Iòlinder Corrach: Half Elf War Cleric - Allansia Adventure
Valerius Sergius Publius: Dhampir Paladin - Vae Victus
Cerlinde tries her sleep spell, once everyone is ready. As discretion is the better part of valor, and cowardice is the better part of discretion, she valiantly stands behind the others while casting it…
Amelia the rogue quietly exits the rats' den, and whispers to the others what she has seen.Cerlinde [peeks around the corner to assess the situation and] suggests a strategy, with a tweak from the gnomish warlock. The party quietly approaches the chamber's entrance, lights extinguished.The sleep spell causes three of the lesser rats to slump over and start snoring. Meanwhile, the ghostly mage hand appears near the dead rat's carcass and begins tugging at the handaxe. The remaining "normal-sized" rats pay it little attention, but the larger rodent stops eating and stares intently at this barely-visible apparition. After a few tugs, the spectral hand manages to free the handaxe and floats toward one wall with the weapon. The "boss" rat growls sharply, and the others instantly look up, sniffing and straining their ears to detect danger. One of them turns in your direction, sampling the air, and freezes, tail twitching, staring right at you.
Feeling that surprise has been lost, and really missing his axe "Frigga", Durnik charges forward, swinging his remaining blade, "Brunhilde", attacking the sentinel beast. Jack is not far behind, with a hastily-lit torch in one hand, and his longsword in the other. Your party is now officially in combat.
(Rats 1-3 and "Boss" are awake, 4-6 asleep for now)
From where she is in the darkness, Amelia throws a dagger at the so-called boss rat.
Attack: Attack: 13 Damage: 9